Valve-changing means



A. B. EDWARDS, C. A. TURNER AND T. L. REED.

VALVE CHANGING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 16. 191 s.

A. B. EDWARDS, CEA. TURNER AND T, L. REED.

VALVE CHANGING MEANS. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 16, l9l8.

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Patented. Sept. 14,1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

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' citizens valve gear, of

I OFFICE.

ARA B. EDwARDs Am CHARLES AKTURNER, 0F HAMLET, NORTH CAROLINA, AND THOMAS L. REED, or ATLANTA, GEORGIA.

VALVE-CfIANG-ING MEANS.

Specification of Letters Patent; Patented S t 14 1920 Application filed October 16, 1918. Serial No. 258,364.

To all whom z't-may concern:

Be it known that we, ARA B. EDWARDS, CHARLES A. TURNER, and THoMAsL. REED, of the United States, residing at Hamlet, county of Richmond, State of North Carolina, Hamlet, county'of Rich-' mond, State of North Carolina, andAtlanta, county of Fulton, State of Georgia, respectively, have .invented new and useful Improvements in Valve-Changing Means, of which the following is a specification.

Our present invention pe ains to valve changing means for locomot es and the like.

The object of the invention is the provision of an organized mechanism whereby fluid under pressure, preferably compressed air, is utilized to advantage in the changlng of the valve gear, necessary the expenditure of more than slight initial effort on the part of the locomotive engineer.

To the attainment of the foregoing, the invention consists in the combination with manual means for initially adjusting the means actuatable by fluid under pressure for completing the necessary movement and really effecting such movement. I

The invention also consists in the interposition of the fluid pressure mechanism in the connection intermediate the manually operable means and the valve gear,"where by said fluid pressure mechanism is promptly controlled by said manual means.

The invention further consists in certain details calculated to contribute materially to the efliciency of the improvement asa whole,

With the foregoing in mind, the invention will be fully understood from the following description and claims when the same are read in connection with the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a view showing in side elevation the construction constituting the best practical embodiment of our invention that we'have as yet devised.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view, gitudinal vertical section and partly vation, illustrative of the arrangement of the fluid pressure mechanism relative to the reach rod employed as an adjunct to the reverse lever. In this view the piston partly in lonthereby rendering unin ele- 7 of said mechanism is shown in neutral position.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view showing the control Valve of the fluid pressure mechan1sm-1n position to change the locomotive balanced valve to bring about forward movement of the locomotive.

Fig. 4 1s an enlarged detail View showing one of the valves for controlling the exhaust from the piston cylinder of the fluid pressure mechanism. v

Fig. 5 1s a transverse section, taken inthe plane I indicated by. the line 5.,5 of

F15. 4. imilar numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in all of the views of the drawings. I

, The balanced valve 1 shown in Fig. 1 may be and preferably is of the ordinary well known construction, and this is also preferably true of the'valvegear including among other elements the tumbler shaft 2, the lever 3 thereon, the arm 4 also carried by said shaft, the rocker 5 and the valve stem rod 6.

At? and designed to be locatedin the locomotive cab is an ordinary reverse lever, operable in the usual manner and equipped with a suitable detent 8 whereby it may be adjustably fixed to a segmental rack 9.

The lever 7 is connected with the lever 3 by the means which constitute the subject matter of our invention.

In furtherance of our invention we extend the sectional reach rod 10 through a cylinder 11, and we suitably fix upon said rod a piston 12. We also'equip the cylinder 11 with a valve chest 13 whichis designed to be connected through a pipe lwith a. suitable source of fluid pressure supply. We further dispose a slide control valve 15 in the chest 13, and provide the rod 10 with a lateral arm 16, suitably fixed upon the rod and movable on a guide rod 17, and connec'ted through a link 18, a lever 19, and a stem 20 with the member 21 of the said slide control valve. The valve member 21 is capable of limited. movement with respect to the major valve member 22; and it will be noted that the member 21 is provided with bleed openings 23,.while the member 22 is provided with ports 21, designed to communicate with the said bleed openings 23 and to be uncovered alternately by the valve member 21, and to register with the ports 25 leading to the opposite ends of the interior of the Cylinder.

Also in furtherance of our invention we provide complementaryto the cylinder 11 the exhaust means clearly shownin Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5. The said means includes a conduit 26, formed in the rod 10 and com haust valve 28.-'for controlling the conduit 26, a spring pressed exhaust valve 29 for controlling the conduit 27, and an abutment 30 for opening the exhaust valve 28 upon forward movement of the reach rod 10, and for opening the exhaust valve 29 upon rearward movement of said reach rod. The manner in which the abutment 3O operates to open the valve 28 and 29 alternately will bereadily understood when it is stated that the said valves andthe conduits that they control are carried by one section 40 of the reach rod 10, while the abutment or tappet 30 is carried by the rear rod section 41; the said section ll being longitudinally slotted. at 42 to receive a lateral pin 43 on the section 40, whereby the two sections, are connected in such manner that the section 41 is capable of limited movement independently of the section40.

In the practical operation of our improvement when the valve 1 is in neutral position and the piston 12 is also in neutral position as shown in Fig. 2, the engineer in order to change the valve 1 so as to bring about forward movement of the locomotive has but to move'the lever 7 forwardly in the conventional manner. Upon the said forwardmovement of the lever? the tappet 30 first opens the exhaust valve 28 to permit fluid under pressure to escape from the-interior of the cylinder 11 at the forward side of the piston 1 2. The said forward movement of the rod 10 being continued the control valve 15 is moved to the position shown in Fig. 3,whereupon a considerable head of fluid under pressure will be admitted to the cylinder 11 at, the rear side of the piston 12 and will result in the changing of the valve 1 being effected by fluid under pressure.

\Vhen' the piston 12 is in neutral position and it is desired to move the locomotive backwardly, the operation described is reversed2'. c., the tappet 3O first opens the exhaust valve 29, andthen the manual rearward movement of the reach rod 10 beingcontinued, the control valve 15 will be moved toward the left in Fig. 2 so as to pressure. From this it is thought the oper'ation incidental to changing from forward movement of the locomotive to backward movement thereof and viceversa will be readily apparent and need not therefore b set forth in detail.- I

When the control valve 15 is adjusted as described the bleed openings 23 in the mem-' ber 21 of said valve serve to admit a small volume of fluid under pressure to the portion of the cylinder 11 that is for the time being open to the atmosphere, this with a view to cushioning the movement of the piston 12under the action of the greater volume of fluid under pressure admitted through one of the uncovered ports 24:. This will be fully appreciated by reference to Fig. 3.

lit will be manifest from the foregoing that incidental to the operation of our improvement the changing of the valve 1 is practically accomplished by the fluid under pressure, it being obvious that but very little effort on the part of the engineer is necessary to first move the rod 10 as a whole sufiiciently far to bring about the required movement of the control valve 15. It will also be manifest that because of its arrangement relative to the reach rod 10, our improvement is compact and therefore, takes up but little space as part of the equipment of a modern locomotive.

Having described our invention what we claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent 1, The combination in locomotive contro equipment, of manually operable means, a reachrod comprising a member connected with said means and having a tappet and a second member with respect to which the first named member has a limited move ment, the said second member carrying a piston and having exhaust conduits extend ing to opposite sides of the piston, valves carried by the second member and control ling said conduits and disposed at opposite valve chest carried by said cylinder andadapted to be connected with a source of fluid 'pressure'supply, ports intermediate the valve chest and the interior of the cylinder at opposite sides of the piston, a control valve movable in said chest and having ports and also having a minor member in which arebleed ports for use in conjunction with the said ports, said minor member being capable of limited movement with re spectto the remainder of the control valve,

and. a connection between the forward member of the reach rod and the minor member of the control valve for movingv the latter by the former.

I and 2. In locomotive control equipment, the combination of manually operable means, a

reach rod comprising a forward section carrying a piston and having exhaust conduits extending from opposite sides of the piston, normally closed valves on said section and controlling said conduits, a rear section connected with the manually oper able means and also connected with the for-1,,

the former.

3. In locomotive control equipment, the combination of a balanced valve, valve gear connected therewith, manually operable means, fluid pressure mechanism comprising a; cylinder and piston having inlet and exhaust ports, and a sectional reach rod intermediate the manually operable means and the valve gear and comprising a section connected with the piston forming part of the fluid pressure mechanism and a section movable independently of the'flrst named section and adapted to control the exhaust of the fluid pressure mechanism, valve means actuatable by the first named section of the reach rod for controlling the supply of fluid under pressure to effect the movements of the reach rod.

4. In means for the purpose described, the combination of a sectional reach rod, one section havin conduits and spring pressed valves for controlling said conduits. a piston on said rod. between the inner ends of said conduits, a cylinder inclosing said piston, and means for supplying fluid under pressure to said cylinder, and a-sectiom capable of limited movement with respect to the first named ection and havinga tappet for alternatel moving the valves thereof against the actionof theirsprin'gs.

5. In means for the purpose describedf,z-,;.y i

the combination of a cylinder divided by. a? piston into chambers. and having ports extending to said chambers, a valve chest in closing said ports and adapted to be connected with aisource of fluid pressure supply, a slide valve comprising a member having ports adapted to register with those of the cylinder, and a second member movable independently of the first named member and adapted to uncover the ports thereof and having bleed ports for registration with the' ports of the first named member, and means connected with the second named member of the valve for actuating the valve. In testimony whereof we aflix our signa tures.

ARA B. EDWARDS. CHARLES A. TURNER. THOMAS L. REED. 

